dog days
by PablosGirl
Summary: They say that Animagi share many traits with their Animal counterparts...and when it comes to Sirius black, it's sometimes hard to decide where the sly man ends and the shaggy dog begins - oneshot collection about the canine behaviour/features of Sirius (and Remus). SB and RL are the main characters; No slash! Give it a try, I hope you enjoy it! Please R&R :)
1. Author's note

**Hello everyone and welcome! :)**

**I just wanted to give you some quick information about this oneshot collection. **

**I probably won't be able to upload new chapters regularly, but whenever a new, canine-related idea pops up in my head, I'll upload it here. **

**All the chaps will feature Sirius and Remus as main characters but this is NO SLASH fiction. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Remus/Sirius, but I wanted to focus on the loveable madness you encounter when living with a dog :) I'm pretty sure that Tonks will appear pretty often, as well.**

**Pablo, my own dog, was/is my inspiration for this oneshot collection; yep, this gorgeous, rubbish-eating, wet-nosed, popcorn-pawed creature in my profile picture. **

**So if you have a dog of your own, feel free to suggest any kind of doggy behaviour (oh, not that, you little perv!) to me and maybe I can make another oneshot out of it :) **

**I'm really thankful for any kind of feedback, so it would be great if you leave a review and tell me wheter you liked it or not :3 I'll reply to all reviews via pm. Oh, and if you find any mistakes, no matter of grammar or recurring spelling mistakes, just tell me, it can only improve my non-native-speaker writing.**

**That's all, I guess...so have fun and enjoy! **

**xo PablosGirl**

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DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything. Harry Potter and everything related to it belongs to J.K. Rowling. I don't make money with this, I just write for fun.


	2. buttered paws

At a fist glance, Sirius Black appeared to be a rude, ill-humoured, alcohol affine man. But those who spent their evening at his old, dark family mansion to plan their resistance against Voldemord, knew better. Well, at least they knew _why_ he behaved like a rude, ill-humoured drunkard. Sirius Black had gone through dark times, lived through nightmares, more grim than anyone could imagine. It was no wonder Sirius was still surrounded and pestered by the demons of his past, constantly threatened to drown in the darkness surrounding him.

Every single day that Sirius was locked up in his house, more of a prison than home to him, he walked the thin tightrope between being on top of the world or down in the dumps. And no one around him, especially not Sirius himself, dared to think about what might happen if he ever fell from that tightrope, dropping into unknown depths. But all these years in Azkaban and the fact that he had only swapped that prison for another one, kept Sirius on the depressive side of the rope most of the time.

One may think that Sirius wasn't the company of choice, but for Tonks he was more than just the grim, depressive ex-convict. After all, he was her second cousin; a disgrace, a traitor to the pureblood-pride and eventually disowned by his own family, just like her mother. Once, when she had looked through old Order photos with Kingsley, she had seen her mother's and therefore her own cheeky grin smiling back at her from his face; a face framed by dark locks, grey eyes twinkling mischievously behind his fringe.

Depression often got the better of him but no matter how rude and loud Sirius might get, no matter how many, even more infuriating, gentle words Dumbledore spoke or how reproachful Molly Weasley looked at him, there was always one person, who could calm him down or at least keep him in check. Lupin.

.

Remus Lupin he was surprisingly different from the Animagus. He was calm, polite and thoughtful. He could spent hours in the kitchen or the library, absorbed in the Daily Prophet or some book, one hand clinging to a cup of tea and his chin resting on the other one, while Sirius crept through the house, mumbling to himself with a glass of Firewhisky as his loyal companion. Eventually, Sirius would always end up by his side, downing the burning liquor as Remus sipped his tea.

Tonks had been surprised when Kingsley told her about one of the Order members being a Werewolf. But she had been even more surprised when she met the friendly smiling man with the warm eyes. And yet there were moments when his facade formed cracks; Tonks had caught him several times, sitting in the kitchen by himself, feeling completely unobserved. Staring in to the flames in the fireplace, his eyes hazed over. The demons of his past were sitting on his shoulders, whispering all those bad memories into his ears while the biggest of them all, a stalking wolf, waited for its turn to prey on his mind again.

Nonetheless, Remus was always able to comfort Sirius in the only way he accepted to be comforted. By staying with him in this gloomy place and keeping him company until late at night without a single word. The fact that Sirius knew that Remus knew, was enough for Sirius. They didn't need words to communicate and share the horrors and pain they'd both been through. They knew. And there were times, although rarely, when this twinkle returned to their eyes and a smirk tugged at the corners of their lips. It had hardly happened at all since Tonks had joined the Order, but whenever their laughter filled the kitchen, Remus gentle chuckle and Sirius' sharp barking, something strange happened. Tonks felt like they were locked in a bubble for a few careless seconds, the worry lines disappeared from their faces, and they looked younger than ever.

.

So one might say that Tonks was foolish, maybe even crazy, to head for number 12 Grimmauldplace instead of her own, cosy apartment after a long, exhausting shift. But Tonks was never the one to care about what other people say...sure, a hot plate of Molly Weasley's wonderful food would already be waiting for her, but Tonks wouldn't bother to put some deep-frozen pizza into her oven either. No, it was something else drawing her to the old, grim house. It was the company of two men, yes exactly; the quiet, reserved Werewolf and the gloomy, cynical ex-convict.

And so Tonks walked up the front steps of number twelve and opened the door...

.

Remus was sitting in the living room, trying to ignore the nagging thought that Sirius might have drifted into a coma since he had gone upstairs to take a nap a few hours ago. If Remus had learnt one thing about him in all those years, then it was the fact that silence was very suspicious if Sirius Black was around.

He'd either be planning a mean prank or lying in bed with a little cold, waiting for anybody to find him so he could act like he was going to die. But those kinds of things were matters of the past. Sirius Black didn't play pranks anymore and neither did he beg for anyone's pity. No, when this Sirius fell silent, Remus knew that he was drowning again...in grief, anger, depression and despair. Those were the moments when Remus sat down with him, asked whether he wanted to talk about it, accepted his usual denying head-shake and just stayed with him.

And so Remus was all the more surprised when a big black dog trotted into the room only seconds later. His shaggy tail was wagging happily and his tongue dangled down the side of his panting mouth, giving the impression of a mad grin. The dog jumped onto the sofa next to Remus, who immediately put his book down. He was glad that Sirius was obviously in a good mood, of course...but this didn't mean that he was easier to handle than during his depressed phases. Within seconds, the dog morphed back into a very human Sirius Black, staring at Remus from the side with the same, unaltered mad grin across his face.

"Guess what, Moony?" he said excited.

"What?" replied Remus, failing to stifle a chuckle.

_Moony...Sirius was really in a good mood..._

"I smell like popcorn!"

"What?!"

"Don't you believe me?" asked Sirius and his voice got a dangerously disappointed tone.

"I...what do you mean, I'm not sure I understand," said Remus quickly, trying to keep his friend's mood from tipping despite his own, utter confusion.

"Here, smell my feet!" said Sirius and the grin returned to his features as he bent down to pull the sock from his left foot.

"What?! No!"

"Come on, you have to believe me, Moony!"

"I won't smell your feet, Sirius!"

"You don't have to smell my _feet_, only one foot!"

"Padfoot!"

"Aha, Padfoot!" exclaimed Sirius triumphantly and held his foot up. "Come on, hurry up!"

"What's the hurry?" asked Remus sceptically.

"Don't ask, Moony, just smell!" said Sirius.

Remus looked into his grinning face; Sirius nodded lightly, wiggling his eyebrows. Oh, the things you do for your friends...

And so Remus leant a little bit closer. He had prepared himself for the worst, a piercing, cheesy smell...but to his honest surprise, a faint smell of buttered popcorn reached his nostrils. Remus frowned as he leant back, his eyes still locked onto the sole of Sirius' foot with an incredulous look.

"See?!" exclaimed Sirius overly excited.

"What the-"

"Wait till you smell my belly!" interrupted Sirius him and before Remus could say anything, Sirius had jumped up to sit on his shins, shifted closer to him and lifted his shirt with both of his hands, exposing his bare belly and chest right in front of his face.

.

When Tonks closed the front door of number 12 behind her, her thoughts were still orbiting around the two men and their, seemingly strange, friendship. During her first days and weeks in the Order, Tonks had been so confused by the friendship of the two men, who appeared to as different as day and night, that a curious idea had sparked in her head.

Maybe there was more to it than just plain friendship...maybe the reason why they were so close with each other, communicated without words and almost never left the other's side during the meetings, was something completely different...something deeper...

But the more Tonks had learnt about their common past, even though it was still not very much to this day, the less she believed in her own, crazy idea...No, Sirius Black was _not_ gay; not the man her mother had told her about, not the charming, sly ladykiller...

Tonks smiled about her own, stupid idea as she opened the door to the living-room...and the smile dropped from her face in slow-motion.

.

"What the-?!" sounded a confused voice from the door.

Remus and Sirius, who was still offering his bare chest to his friend, turned their heads to the door.

Tonks was standing in the doorframe, her hand still on the handle, and just stared at them with her mouth open and an expression of utter confusion on her face.

"It's not what it looks like!" hastened Remus to say.

"I...I'm sorry, I should've knocked...See you tomorrow at the meeting..." mumbled Tonks, turned on her heel and closed the door behind her again.

The clicking sound of the door was followed by her muffled laughter and eventually the front door.

"Merlin..." mumbled Remus and massaged the bridge of his nose.

"Are you gonna smell it, or what?"

"What?"

"Come on, Moony!"

Remus didn't even know why he did it, but eventually he leant closer and sniffed Sirius' chest.

Sirius sat down again, staring at Remus with the same mad grin and an excited, expecting look on his face.

Remus watched him for a few moments with a confused frown on his face, forming deep lines on his forehead. And when he finally raised his voice, it matched the look on his face, not believing what he was about to say.

"Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

"Why?!"

"Buttered, sweet popcorn, right?!" asked Sirius eagerly.

...

"Yes..." replied Remus, sounding as if he'd just watched winged pigs flying over London's rooftops and couldn't believe his eyes.

"Cool huh?" replied Sirius and the grin on his face could've easily competed with a Cheshire cat...

_Oh, the things you do for your friends..._

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_A/N:__ First of all: I hope you liked it, leave a review if you did! :) And secondly: Yes, it's true. There are many dogs whose paws smell like buttered popcorn or corn chips. I noticed it on my own dog; whenever he sleeps rolled up in a ball, his belly and nose will smell like popcorn as well...One of my friends' dog has "little popcorn-paws", too, and you can find many forum entries and articles about it on the internet. The most probable reasons for this are microorganisms and bacteria on dogs' paws which produce this kind of smell. The more you know... :3_


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